As consumer attention continues to fragment across devices and channels, advertisers are broadening their media mix to cut through the noise and stay relevant. While a multichannel strategy is now the norm, true success requires an omnichannel approach — one that unifies audience, creative and media throughout the campaign lifecycle.

The biggest difference between an omnichannel strategy and a multichannel one lies in its unified approach to audience management across campaigns spanning three or more channels. Crucially, this unification goes beyond aggregation. It’s about creating a seamless experience across those channels.

Immediacy and convenience are everything to the modern consumer. With 70% of customers believing that speedy and convenient deliveries matter most and 23% stating they won’t shop from the same store again after a delivery delay, customer retention and loyalty aren’t based on products and prices anymore. Delivery and logistics are the new battlefield where customer satisfaction is won or lost.

Delivery and logistics are the backbone of eCommerce, serving as the essential link between suppliers and customers. From small parcels to massive freight shipments, this industry oversees over 350 billion packages crisscrossing the globe annually while juggling the delicate balance of precision, speed, and customer expectations. 

Unified commerce is the next stage of omnichannel. Retailers have long understood the importance of an omnichannel strategy, with the focus on offering a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints including stores, websites, apps, and social media. But the tech stacks supporting these experiences were often siloed, and the lack of integration on the back end has created significant hurdles that cause friction for both retailers and their customers.

As the  ecommerce market grows exponentially, six trends projected to heavily impact the  global market (link resides outside of ibm.com) are  artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, live commerce, online-to-offline ecommerce, social commerce and voice assistants. Generative AI opens up greater opportunities for value-creating personalization, dynamic pricing, user-friendly  chatbots, voice assistants, virtual assistants, and improved customer search. Social commerce, a form of ecommerce in which a social media platform serves as both a marketing channel and a shopping destination, is expected to  grow by more than 50% (link resides outside of ibm.com) between 2021 and 2025.

Retaining customers can be challenging, but it’s far more lucrative than finding new ones. According to SimplicityDX, the average business spends $29 acquiring a new customer while a repeat customer generates $39, so customer loyalty is a massive moneymaker. With rising customer expectations and increased competition, retaining loyal customers matters. Loyal customers spend more, refer others, and contribute to brand stability, making customer retention strategies vital for any organization.

Consumers have taken control of the marketplace over the past decade, pushing online and traditional merchants alike to create flexible shopping solutions. This has blurred the lines somewhat between the physical and the digital, and encouraging the propagation of what’s become known as Omnichannel commerce.

What is Omnichannel E-Commerce? What Consumers Want

Omnichannel commerce doesn’t just mean offering customers a choice between purchasing their goods online or in-store. The scope is much broader, with consumers desiring home delivery, but with the option to return products into stores when necessary. They want to order online and collect their orders in-store. They even want to view products in stores, but then place orders online for delivery to their front doors.

The majority of shoppers (63%) will abandon shopping carts after a maximum of two purchase attempts. The Applause survey was distributed in two parts, first in November 2024 on general holiday shopping plans and experiences, and second in December 2024 regarding respondents’ actual shopping experiences between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The survey found that despite continuing concerns around inflation and financial instability, consumers plan to spend more this year — though they are planning to spend smarter by paying more attention to sales and discounts. They are also becoming increasingly intolerant of poor purchasing experiences, prioritizing seamless checkout, ease-of-use and convenience.

Brick-and-click retailers can struggle to balance local and ecommerce search engine optimization. A physical store wants to target folks in a geographic area and drive in-person visits, while an ecommerce site aims for buyers anywhere. Different goals, however, don’t necessarily mean there is a problem.

Imagine a furniture retailer with dozens of stores in California and Florida. The CEO could message the marketing team concerned that ecommerce represents less than 20% of total revenue. Her concern the next day could be a new Miami store not appearing on a local Google search.